Hey everyone! This is my first time posting on this site, but I’ve been having trouble deciding between two options for college and was wondering what your thoughts are.
I’m interested in doing aerospace engineering. It’s always been a longstanding interest of mine, however I’m obviously just a student in high school with little real exposure to the field, so I acknowledge that I might explore some other things in college and that this could maybe change.
I got a full ride at Rutgers Honors College and a small merit scholarship for Engineering Honors at UT Austin. I’m having trouble choosing because UT seems to have a better program in aerospace (and most engineering fields in general in case I branch out)
Hey so sorry, I’m new to College Confidential and this was an unfinished post, so please disregard. I reposted the full question and got rid of unnecessary stuff under the title “Full ride Rutgers Honors College vs UT Austin & UIUC Out of State” in case you would like to give any thoughts. Thanks 
UT is great, but it’s not worth it OOS over full ride honors at Rutgers.
It is highly doubtful that $200k for UT Austin is worth it over a full ride at Rutgers.
My friend and neighbor is an aerospace engineer that went to Rutgers years ago. He is rocket scientist smart and works on cool programs with DARPA, etc. He said Rutgers was incredibly challenging. I believe the school has only gotten better since he went.
Take the full ride at Rutgers Honors. Your opportunities should be incredible. Plus you save $200K for the down payment of a home, a car, travel, or grad school if you want it.
Hmm I see, but just to clarify the cost would be about 120k total. Like I said this was sort of an unfinished post, so it doesn’t include the cost. My parents were always planning on moving to whichever state I go if I do go out of state because they don’t want to be too far away. So because they plan on moving, I would at least get in state tuition for part of the 4 years. The original plan was that they would move this summer and then I would get 3 years in-state which would’ve made UT much more affordable, but then coronavirus happened so now it’s more likely 2 years out of state which is what the 120k number is based on. Would you still say it isn’t worth it?
This is the full post in case you were wondering:
Hey everyone! This is my first time posting on this site (I accidentally posted an unfinished version of this a while ago but here it is in full form), but I’ve been having trouble deciding between two options for college and was wondering what your thoughts are.
I’m interested in doing aerospace engineering. It’s always been a longstanding interest of mine, however I’m obviously just a student in high school with little real exposure to the field, so I acknowledge that I might explore some other things in college and that this could maybe change.
I got Rutgers Honors College full ride, UT Austin Engineering Honors program, and UIUC James Scholars Honors Program. With UT Austin and UIUC it would cost about 120k total vs almost nothing at Rutgers. I’m confused because UT and UIUC have better programs and from what I saw nicer labs/facilities, but Rutgers obviously is better financially. Plus, covid-19 is making things unpredictable now, so that’s also a factor.
Any thoughts are welcome! Thanks in advance
@sbdad12 That’s really cool actually! So I guess opportunities shouldn’t really be a problem because of the region. Thanks for the info!
$120k is still a lot of money.